Measuring Page Viewership in a Social Network

ABSTRACT

A social networking system includes pages created by users for providing content related to topics of interest. An interaction engine captures data and maintains analytical information about how users interact with pages and posts. When a user takes an action such as liking a page or a post, the interaction engine updates the page&#39;s activity history to reflect the activity and information about the user who took the action. The interaction engine also measures the reach of pages and posts, by determining how and from where each user viewed the page and its contents. The interaction engine further tracks the community&#39;s interest in pages and posts by determining how many unique users create stories that include a page or its content. An insights module uses the data obtained by the interaction engine to synthesize graphical reports about page interactions and present the reports to page administrators.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The described invention relates generally to measuring viewership of apage in a social network.

2. Description of Related Art

Pages in a social network can be directed to various topics of interest,including celebrities; local or national businesses; fictionalcharacters; political or ideological movements; or any of a variety ofother topics. Pages are created by one or more users of the socialnetwork, who then become administrators of the page. Many pages are opento all users of the social network.

SUMMARY

A social networking system includes one or more pages created by usersfor providing content related to topics of interest. Pages may relate toa business, public figure, political movement, or other concept. Thesepages are different from user profile pages in that they are notspecific to a particular user of the social networking system, butrather are specific to the particular entity or concept that is thesubject of the page. Pages are maintained by the users of the socialnetworking system that created the pages, known as administrators. Someor all users of the social networking system may post content to thepages, including links, photos, videos, questions, events, and comments.Users view content of the pages directly, by visiting the pages, or whenparticular posts on pages are republished by other users.

An interaction engine captures data and maintains analytical informationabout how users interact with pages and posts in the social networkingsystem. Each time a user takes an action such as liking a page or a poston the page, the interaction engine updates the page's activity historyto reflect the activity as well as information about the user who tookthe action, such as the user's age, gender, location, and language. Theinteraction engine also measures the reach of pages and posts, bydetermining how and from where each user viewed the page and itscontents. The interaction engine further tracks the community's interestin pages and posts by determining how often stories are created by usersthat include a page or its content.

An insights module of the social networking engine uses the dataobtained by the interaction engine and stored in the page activityhistory database to synthesize graphical reports about page interactionsand present the reports to page administrators. This providesadministrators with the ability to easily understand which page contentis of greatest interest to users of specific demographics, and helpsadministrators tailor content to reach particular audiences.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a social networking system in accordancewith one embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for storing informationabout page likes in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for storing informationabout page reach in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for storing informationabout page stories in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a screen shot illustrating an administrator's view of a pagein accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of an insights overview page in accordancewith one embodiment.

FIG. 7 illustrates a user interface for controlling the export ofinsights data in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 8 is an example of a graph illustrating reach of a post inaccordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 9 is an example of a graph illustrating engagement with a post inaccordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 10 is an example of a graph illustrating measurement of storiesabout a post in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 11 illustrates demographics information about users interactingwith a page in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 12 is an example of a graph illustrating likes and unlikes of apage over time in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of like sources for a page in accordancewith one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Each of a plurality of users of social networking system 100 has anaccount profile stored in accounts database 102. Each account profilehas an associated account profile page, which provides a location withinthe social networking system 100 for other users to interact with theaccount holder. For example, both the user and other users may postcomments, photographs, links and the like to the account holder'sprofile page.

In addition to profile pages associated with a user account profile,users can also create pages that relate to a business, public figure,political movement, or other concept. These pages are different fromuser profile pages in that they are not specific to a particular user ofthe social networking system 100, but rather are specific to theparticular entity or concept that is the subject of the page. Forexample, users may create pages for their favorite local coffee shop;the latest recording artist sensation; or a non-profit organization.These pages may be created by fans of the particular topic, or may becreated by users with a more particularized interest—for example, anational fast-food restaurant chain may establish a page dedicated tothat brand. Throughout the remainder of this description, we refer tothese non-user profile pages simply as “pages”.

Users can post comments, pictures, links, videos, media, or othercontent on a page. Users can also add comments or endorse (“like”) otherposts on the page, and in addition can like the page itself. A page canalso include text, comments, photos, advertisements, logos ortrademarks, location information, product information, marketingmaterials, URL links, information about deals or promotions, otherrelated products, or upcoming events, etc.

As noted, a user of the social networking system 100 creates one or morepages in the social networking system. The creator and other users thatthe creator may designate are known as administrators of the page.Administrators have the ability to modify content and settings, e.g.,relating to the page's appearance, and in various embodiments haveadditional power to control how the page is used—for example, byregulating access to the page by certain users, posting to the page bynone, some or all users, and the like. Administrators can also takeactions within the social networking system on behalf of the page, forexample by liking other pages.

FIG. 1 illustrates a social networking system 100 in accordance with oneembodiment. Social networking system 100 is implemented using computerservers with access to a network such as the Internet. In addition tocomponents known to those of skill in the art and found in aconventional social networking system (and therefore not described here,for the sake of clarity), social networking system 100 additionallyincludes a user accounts database 102, page content database 108, pageactivity history database 106, interaction engine 112, and insightsmodule 110.

User accounts database 102 stores accounts for each user of the socialnetworking system 100, including profile information. Profileinformation typically includes the name, location, age, and gender ofeach user, as well as interests, organizational affiliations, and thelike. In addition, profile information for a user includes indicia ofany pages for which the user is an administrator.

Page content database 108 stores page content and metadata for each pagein social networking system 100. Page metadata includes indicia of thepage's administrators, page layout, and access control policies, if any.Page content includes photos, links, objects, and posts contributed bypage administrators or other users of social networking system 100.

Page activity history database 106 stores information about interactionswith a page, such as likes received by a page or posts on a page, thereach of the page or posts on the page, and information about who isincluding the page or stories from the page in their own stories.

Interaction engine 112 receives information about the behavior of userswith respect to pages and page content and updates page activity history106 to reflect those interactions. Insights module 110 uses data frompage activity history 106 to analyze page interactions and providesummary data to page administrators. The operation of each of thesecomponents is described further below.

As noted, users of social networking system 100 can view content on andotherwise interact with pages. One way users can interact with a page isto endorse or express an affinity for a page, also known as liking apage. When a user likes a page, the user's profile page is typicallyupdated to reflect that the user likes the page, and that fact is alsoshown to friends of the user in their news feeds. This, in turn, causesan increase in the number of visitors to the page, leading to additionalliking of the page. Administrators therefore tend to view likes of theirpage as one way to increase interest in their page across the socialnetwork.

Social networking system 100 enables page administrators to understandwho likes their pages, and what the sources of the likes were. FIG. 2 isa flow chart illustrating how interaction engine 112 stores page likedata in accordance with one embodiment. Interaction engine 112 initiallyreceives 202 a notification that a user has liked a page. Next,interaction engine 112 determines 204 from user accounts database 102the user's age and gender. From an IP address associated with the userwhen she liked the page, the user's likely location, including countryand city, is determined 206. The user's language is determined 208,again by reference to the user accounts database. Finally, a like sourceis determined 210. The like source establishes where in the context ofthe social networking system (or outside of it) the user indicated thatshe liked the page. In one embodiment, possible like sources include thefollowing:

On Page, News Feed, or Ticker: people who like the page on the pageitself, or in a news feed or ticker story.

Ads and Sponsored Stories: people who liked an advertisement or asponsored story pointing to the page.

Recommendations: people who liked the page based on a list ofrecommended pages provided to the user by the social networking system100.

Mobile: people who liked the page using a mobile device.

Third party applications: people who liked the page via an applicationdeveloped by a third party.

Page likes another page: other pages that have liked the page.

Timeline edit: people who added the page to their likes on theirtimeline or profile page.

Page browser: people who liked the page using a browsing feature of thesocial networking system to browse pages.

Like box or Like button: people who liked the page using a plugin on asite external to the social networking system 100.

Administrator registration: people added to the page as administrators.

Administrator invitation: people who liked the page after receiving aninvitation to the page from an administrator.

After determining 210 the like source for the new like, interactionengine 112 then updates 212 the page's activity history in page activityhistory 106.

By tracking demographic information and like sources for each like andupdating the page's activity history to reflect this information, socialnetworking system 100 can then provide meaningful reporting data to pageadministrators about to whom their pages appeal, as described furtherbelow with respect to FIG. 11, FIG. 12, and FIG. 13.

Interaction engine 112 also enables tracking of a page's reach. A pageis said to reach a user if the user sees any content associated with thepage. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for identifying apage's reach in accordance with one embodiment. Interaction engine 112receives 302 a notification that a reach event has occurred for a page.For example, a posting on the page may be displayed as part of the newsfeed of a user who likes the page, or may be shared by a user visitingthe page, or the page may be visited by a user, etc. Once interactionengine 112 receives the reach event notification, interaction engine112, it determines 304 whether the reach event is a visit to the page bya user referred from an external page, for example via a search engineor link on a third-party web site. If the event is a visit from anexternal referrer, interaction engine 112 identifies 306 the externalreferrer, using the HTTP Referrer header information, for example.

If the reach event is not an external page referral, then interactionengine identifies 308 a channel by which the page content reached theuser. In one embodiment, interaction engine 112 determines whether theinteraction occurred organically, through a paid channel, or through aviral channel. Interaction engine 112 classifies the interaction asorganic if the user encountered the page content in the user's newsfeed, ticker, or on the page itself. The interaction is classified asthrough a paid channel if the user saw an ad or a sponsored story thatpointed to the page. And the interaction is classified as viral if theuser encountered the content via a story published by a friend.

Next, interaction engine 112 determines 310 the user's demographics,including age, gender, location and language as described above withrespect to FIG. 2. Finally, interaction engine 112 updates 312 thepage's activity history 106 to reflect the data determined about thereach event. In one embodiment, interaction engine 112 additionallydetermines which of multiple tabs on the page the reached contentbelongs to, and includes this information in the activity history 106.

Referring to FIG. 4, another interaction with pages measured by socialnetworking system 100 is the creation of a story about the page. A storyabout a page is created in one embodiment to indicate that a user tookone of the following actions:

-   -   Liked the page;    -   Liked, commented on, or shared a post made by the page;    -   Answered a question asked by the page;    -   Responded to an event hosted by the page;    -   Mentioned the page in a post;    -   Tagged the page in a photo; or    -   Checked in or recommended a place associated with the page

Interaction engine 112 receives 402 a story notification triggered by auser engaging in one of the above activities. In response, interactionengine 112 determines 404 user demographics, including the user's age,gender, location, and language, as described above with respect to FIG.2. Next, interaction engine 112 updates 406 the page activity history106 to reflect the occurrence of the interaction.

In various embodiments, interaction engine 112 additionally tracks thereach, engagement, and interest in individual posts on a page, as wellas with the page itself.

For example, interaction engine 112 in one embodiment tracks the totalnumber of people who have seen each post on each page, and the channelby which the post reached the viewers, maintaining that information inupdates page activity history 106.

In one embodiment, interaction engine 112 also tracks the number ofpeople talking about, or creating a story about, each post on a page, asdescribed above in the context of an entire page with respect to FIG. 4.

And in one embodiment interaction engine 112 tracks the number ofengaged users for each post, which includes the number of unique peoplewho have clicked anywhere on the post, including liking the post orotherwise creating a story about the post as described above withrespect to FIG. 4 in the context of a page; clicking on a link withinthe post; clicking on a photo or a video; or on any other element of thepost.

Interaction engine 112 also in one embodiment determines the virality ofa post by determining the number of unique people who have created astory based on a post, as a fraction of the total number of people whohave seen the post.

Presenting Viewership Information

Insights module 110 presents the information collected by interactionengine 112 and stored in page activity history 106 in a manner thatallows page administrators to understand how a page is performing, learnwhich content is most interesting to particular audiences, and optimizethe reach of the page to users of the social networking system 100.

Referring to FIG. 5, in one embodiment an administrator's view of a pageincludes a control element 502 in a control region 500 of the page.Selection of control element 502 enables the administrator to interactdirectly with insights module 110.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of an insights overview page 600 inaccordance with one embodiment. An administrator may select an exportcontrol element 602 to export insights data for review in anotherapplication, for example a spreadsheet application. FIG. 7 illustrates auser interface 700 for controlling the export of insights data. Usingthe user interface 700, the administrator can select a data range forwhich data should be exported, a file format for the data export, andthe type of data to be exported—either page level data, for aggregatedata about the page, or post level data for data on each of the postsmade on a page. Selecting a control element such as the “Download”button 702 initiates the export function.

Returning to FIG. 6, insights page 600 includes a region 604 thatprovides an understanding of the page's overall performance. Insightsmodule 110 populates insights page 600 and the following pages byreading data about each post and page, as appropriate, from pageactivity history 106. A “Total Likes” value 606 represents a number ofusers of social networking system 100 who have liked the page, throughall like sources. Because friends of these fans represent a much largerset of consumers than fans alone and are much more likely than theaverage user to visit the page, a “Friends of Fans” value 608 describesto administrators how many friends within the social network are had byusers who have indicated an affinity for the page. (“Friends” in thecontext of a social network indicates a relationship between two usersof the network who have expressed a mutual affinity for each other, asunderstood by those of skill in the art.) The friends of fans value 608is suggestive of a total number of people the page's content couldpotentially reach if each of its fans told all of their friends aboutthe content.

The “People Talking About This” value 610 indicates how many users areactually talking about the page to their friends. In one embodiment,this metric includes the actions described above with respect to FIG. 4,as measured over a specified time period such as the previous 7 days.Note that in various embodiments, the time period is selectable by theuser using a UI control element (not shown), or set by the implementerof the social networking system 100. A “Total Reach” value 612 describesa total number of unique people who have seen any content associatedwith the page within the particular time period.

In one embodiment, some of the above values are viewable by othermembers of the social network, even if they are not administrators ofthe page. For example, a total number of users who like a page, or atotal number of mentions that a page has received may be visible to allusers. In one embodiment, the administrators of the page are able toselect which, if any, values are viewable by users other than pageadministrators.

Region 614 of insights page 600 includes a graph that illustrates theinterplay between posts made on the page over time, people talking aboutthe page, and total reach of the page. In the illustrated embodiment,insights module 110 displays indicators such as indicator 616 along adate axis to represent dates on which posts were made to the page. Thesize of the indicator in the illustrated case represents generally anumber of posts made on that day—the larger the indicator, the greaterthe number of posts. Along the same date axis, a line 618 illustrates anumber of people talking about the page (as described above with respectto value 610) on that date. Another line 620 represents the total reachfor the page along the same date axis. In one embodiment, the totalreach value, as described above, represents the total reach of the pageover a period ending on the indicated date. In one embodiment, theperiod displayed by the graph is selectable by the administrator. Forexample, a control element (not shown) allows the administrator tochoose to view data for the previous week, month, year, or custom dates.

Region 622 of insights page 600 lists a plurality of posts made by thepage over the default or selected time period. Each row in the list inone embodiment includes a date of the post; an identifier 624 for thepost, such as the first several characters of its text; the reach 626,or number of unique users who viewed the post; the number of engagedusers 628, that is, the number of users who have clicked within the postas described above; the number of users who talked about the post 630,i.e. users who interacted with the post as described above with respectto value 610; and the virality of the post 632, as measured by thefraction of users viewing the post who have created a story about thepost. Providing information at the per-post level enables administratorsto recognize the characteristics of individual posts that are mostlikely to reach large audiences. In various embodiments, the listing ofthe posts is sortable according to any of the columns, for example byclicking on the desired column heading.

In one embodiment, by clicking on any of the reach 626, engaged users628, talking about this 630, or virality 632 entries for a post,supporting data is presented. For example, FIG. 8 illustrates an exampleof a graph 800 presented in response to the user clicking on an item inthe reach column 626. Graph 800 includes three columns, representing anumber of users that the post reached organically 802, through a paidchannel 804, or through a viral channel 806, respectively.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a graph 900 presented in response tothe user clicking on an item in the engaged users column 628. As notedan engaged user is a user who has clicked anywhere within the post. Thepie chart 900 illustrated in the example of FIG. 9 segments userengagement into three categories: video plays 902, stories generated 904and other clicks 906. In various embodiments, categories mayadditionally include photo views, clicked links, likes, shares,comments, event RSVPs and questions answered.

Referring to FIG. 10, in one embodiment, selecting an item in thetalking about this 630 column causes a graph such as pie chart 1000 tobe displayed. Pie chart 1000 indicates the different types of storiesgenerated by the post. Note that these items collectively make up theportion 904 of graph 900, reflecting the “stories generated” element ofuser engagement. Stories may be generated by users liking the post(segment 1002), users commenting on the post (segment 1004), or throughusers sharing the post (segment 1006). In addition, users may alsogenerate stories by responding (RSVP'ing) to a posted event or answeringa posted question.

In addition to tracking and reporting on viewership of specific posts,insights module 110 also displays characteristics of users who expressan affinity for the page, and how those users discovered the page.

Referring again to FIG. 6, a control area of page 600 includes interfacecontrols, also known as tabs, for viewing insights information aboutpage likes 634, page reach 636, and people talking about the page 638.

In one embodiment, the page likes tab includes a demographics page, anew likes page, and a like sources page.

FIG. 11 illustrates a demographics page 1100 illustrating informationabout those users who have liked the page broken down by age and gender,country, city and spoken language. Insights module 110 reads the datafor the demographics of page viewers from page activity history 106, andgroups the data for display in the example of FIG. 11 according tovarious age groups, as well as gender, country, city and languagespoken. In one embodiment, insights module 110 displays only thecountries and cities having more than a minimum percentage of likes inorder to prevent the user interface from becoming cluttered.

FIG. 12 illustrates a new likes page 1200 of the page likes tab. Newlikes page 1200 illustrates for the selected time period how many uniquepeople liked the page during each day, and how many unique people haveunliked the page (i.e. indicated they no longer like the page) duringthe same period.

FIG. 13 illustrates a like sources page 1300 of the page likes tab. Theillustrated like sources indicate the number of times the page wasliked, categorized according to where the like occurred, as describedabove with respected to FIG. 2. In one embodiment, only like sourceswith non-zero values for that page are shown.

In addition to the embodiments specifically described above, those ofskill in the art will appreciate that the invention may additionally bepracticed in other embodiments.

Within this written description, the particular naming of thecomponents, capitalization of terms, the attributes, data structures, orany other programming or structural aspect is not mandatory orsignificant unless otherwise noted, and the mechanisms that implementthe described invention or its features may have different names,formats, or protocols. Further, the system may be implemented via acombination of hardware and software, as described, or entirely inhardware elements. Also, the particular division of functionalitybetween the various system components described here is not mandatory;functions performed by a single module or system component may insteadbe performed by multiple components, and functions performed by multiplecomponents may instead be performed by a single component. Likewise, theorder in which method steps are performed is not mandatory unlessotherwise noted or logically required. It should be noted that theprocess steps and instructions of the present invention could beembodied in software, firmware or hardware, and when embodied insoftware, could be downloaded to reside on and be operated fromdifferent platforms used by real time network operating systems.

Algorithmic descriptions and representations included in thisdescription are understood to be implemented by computer programs.Furthermore, it has also proven convenient at times, to refer to thesearrangements of operations as modules or code devices, without loss ofgenerality.

Unless otherwise indicated, discussions utilizing terms such as“selecting” or “computing” or “determining” or the like refer to theaction and processes of a computer system, or similar electroniccomputing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented asphysical (electronic) quantities within the computer system memories orregisters or other such information storage, transmission or displaydevices.

The present invention also relates to an apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type ofdisk including floppy disks, optical disks, DVDs, CD-ROMs,magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random accessmemories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, applicationspecific integrated circuits (ASICs), or any type of media suitable forstoring electronic instructions, and each coupled to a computer systembus. Furthermore, the computers referred to in the specification mayinclude a single processor or may be architectures employing multipleprocessor designs for increased computing capability.

The algorithms and displays presented are not inherently related to anyparticular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purpose systemsmay also be used with programs in accordance with the teachings above,or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus toperform the required method steps. The required structure for a varietyof these systems will appear from the description above. In addition, avariety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachingsabove.

Finally, it should be noted that the language used in the specificationhas been principally selected for readability and instructionalpurposes, and may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribethe inventive subject matter. Accordingly, the disclosure of the presentinvention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scopeof the invention.

We claim:
 1. A method, comprising: receiving a like notification from auser for a page in a social networking system; determining demographicinformation about the user from a profile associated with the user;determining a like source; and updating a page activity historyassociated with the page to reflect the like request by the userincluding the demographic information and the like source.
 2. A method,comprising: receiving a reach notification for a page in a socialnetworking system, the reach notification indicating accessing ofcontent on the page by a user of the social networking system;determining demographic information about the user from a profileassociated with the user; determining a channel through which the useraccessed the content; and updating a page activity history associatedwith the page to reflect the reach notification by the user includingthe demographic information and the channel.
 3. A method, comprising:receiving a request from a page administrator of a social networkingsystem for analytical information about the administered page;retrieving page activity history associated with the page from a pageactivity database; displaying in a first region of a user interfaceinformation describing the retrieved page activity history, including: anumber of likes received by the page; and a number of users that createdstories within the social networking system about the page during a timeperiod; displaying in a second region of the user interface informationdescribing, for each of a plurality of posts on the page, informationdescribing the retrieved page activity history, including: a number ofusers that viewed the post within the time period; and a number of usersthat created stories within the social networking system about the postduring the time period.